Nintendo Confirms DVD-enabled Wii Scheduled

In what we can only describe as ‘not the smartest marketing move ever’ Nintendo of America has confirmed – just days before the Wii’s official release – that a superior version of the console with DVD movie playback will be launched in the second half of 2007. (Image:console)

Following a slip by digital media software company Sonic Solutions which stated that Nintendo has chosen it to ‘bring high quality DVD movie viewing to a future version of the company’s Wii gaming console’ the games legend was forced to admit the story.

Speaking to GameDaily Biz, Nintendo US spokesman Matt Atwood said no firm date or price for version 2.0 of the Wii has been decided but that there will be an “extra cost required to implement DVD playback”. He also said that those who buy the first edition of the Wii would not be able to bolster the console’s functionality at a later date as it “requires more than a firmware upgrade”.

Of course when the Wii was first unveiled (under the – in my opinion – infinitely more appealing name: ‘Revolution’) it featured DVD playback as standard but this was later dropped after being cited as an unnecessary expense. Whether this announcement actually convinces any serious gamer to hold fire on buying a Wii for a minimum of six months seems unlikely.